On the old maps in the borderlands, in unknown territory, in untraveled areas, and on the uncharted seas, something had to be written. So the old mapmakers said, “Here be dragons.” Thereupon mystic beasts were drawn, terrible dragons, devouring seamonsters, and all manner of mythical creatures. And somehow this brought them to life. One can argue whether or not they were real before the mapmaker performed his magic, but afterward, there is no doubt. Many an ancient sea captain reported seeing dragons in those very areas about which the mapmaker cautioned.
 |
| An uncharted land. |
It’s the regions that reach onward and outward where the end
cannot be seen, cannot be found. It’s
the areas that go on and on with never an end in sight, never a familiar marker
to be found. It’s the vast expanses that
make us feel as tiny as an ant, that tower over everything. The mind cannot think of nothing. It must think of something, even if it calls
the something “nothing.” Nothing is
still something, and so we must define it.
The mapmaker is free to imagine whatever he wants in those
unknown areas. Perhaps it’s the end of
the Earth, where a ship sails and falls right off into the netherworld. Perhaps it’s a land inhabited by gods and
Titans, separated by a stone wall forty feet high. Perhaps it’s more subtle, like another realm
superimposed upon our own realm, separated only by a misty curtain through
which only the knowledgeable and skilled traveler may pass. The mapmaker is free to see the hidden worlds
and bring them to life for us.
I am the mapmaker in my world. At the edge of the shore is a vast sea that
goes on and on. There is no visible end
to it. And out upon the sea are various
islands and landmasses, and on these islands and landmasses are all kinds of
people from the most fantastic civilizations.
Some are beautiful and incredible.
Some are terrible and woeful.
Each one is a world unto itself, unaware of the other worlds and
certainly unaware of us. The mind can
visit any civilization it wants to and gain the experience of the other world,
providing it knows how to pass through the misty curtain.
This is what a traveler does. And a traveler needs a map to get her from
place to place and to record the unknown and make it known. That’s what I do every day. Out on those high seas, while navigating
through some difficult situations in those worlds and especially in our own, I
have often said, “Here be dragons!”
